The trouble with a child that lives in two homes is that when it's time for a big project, things have to go back and forth, papers get lost, information is incorrectly passed on and children get confused as do the parents. So this weekend, Ryan and I finally got all the information on Cassidy's science project that is due this week though she has needed to be working on it all month. Cass was in tears because she hadn't done anything, but we were able to stop everything and get it done.
It is in these moments that I thank God that I am able to be a full time mom. I had the availability to get online with Cass and figure out what she wanted to do. Then we went to Walmart to get supplies. We used the three day weekend to experiment and we were able to finish the project Tuesday evening. She was sent to school with all the supplies to complete the presentation board at school. All this without anymore tears and I am proud of how hard she worked.
So here it is:
Better Candle for your money.
Will a white candle or a colored candle burn faster. After some research, she learned how to care for candles. You need to trim the wick to 1/4" before lighting it. A long wick can burn unevenly and smoke. She also learned that you need to protect the flame from the elements by putting it in a glass; she used my hurricane lamps.
Her hypothesis was that the white would burn faster because there were no dyes or chemicals.
She set the timer for an hour, let the candles burn then measured them after one hour. She repeated her test three times with white and three different colors: orange, maroon, and blue. Then the following day she repeated the entire experiment. After burning 12 candles, the results did not match her hypothesis. The colored candles burned faster...not by much but consistently they burned faster. She concluded that the extra chemicals and dyes in a colored candle may create a hotter flame causing them to burn faster. Therefore white candles are the better candle for your money.
Here's some pics of the process:
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| The Supplies |
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| Candles burning - it took six hours to do all the tests! |
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| After the tests were complete |
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| At the Science Fair |
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| Dad & I got to be judges for 5th grade. We stopped by to see Cassidy after we were done. |
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| So proud of his baby girl. |
